Impact of COVID-19 on the Employment of Immigrants

The Canadian economy has been suffering from the damaging impact of COVID-19. The adverse impact of COVID-19 on employment and income has been unevenly affecting different socio-economic and demographic groups in Canada. Labour market impact of COVID-19 disproportionately affected immigrants, particularly women as they are overrepresented in low paid and precarious work in Canada. Although federal emergency benefits were provided such as Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), marginalized workers were excluded from these benefits as they were not able to meet the eligibility criteria. Based on the interviews of 20 women from the Bangladeshi community in the Greater Toronto Area my research finds that neoliberalism contributes to the rise of precarious employment and labour market insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the stark contrast in divisions in the labour market between workers with relatively secure jobs and the ability to work from home, those without the ability to work from home (especially in precarious jobs) and those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. My findings show that a majority of immigrant Bangladeshi women in the Greater Toronto Area who were employed were working in precarious jobs that were low-paying, temporary or contractual in nature. I find a high level of job loss, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, disproportionately experienced by immigrant Bangladeshi women as they are more vulnerable and marginalized in Canada.